St. Landry democrat., 1887-09-24

| III q UOoh tio'ANSA AoA eill'
purpose The dealer must also enter the
quantities of tobacco he sells, and to
whom he sells it. Every one connected
with the tobacco business must also be
licensed. The cigar manufacturer must
as well give bond in 500 for each
cigarmaker he employs. He must,
beside, keep books in which he
enters his purchases and the num-
Der of cigars he makes; twenty-five
pounds of tobacco being allowed by the
government for every 1000 cigars, and
the manufacturer is compelled to make
monthly returns. Penalties are provided
by the govern ment for attractions of its
rules and regulations.
The internal revenue system is what
is termed war measure, for it sprang
into existence during the early years of
\ the war, but as at present constituted,
with all the Objectionable and onerous
features eliminated and the internal
revenue laws administered in the light
of years of experience, is not hardship
upon either the leaf dealer or cigar
manufacturer The former wants the
system abolished because it restricts him
to narrow circle of customers, and the
latter wants it preserved because it pre-
vents small manufacturers from be-
coming his business rivals and because
the caution notice which the government
requires upon every box of cigars is a
measure of protection to him. Canada,
which has an internal revenue system
modelled upon ours, goes step further
and insists upon putting an inspector in
every cigar factory in the Dominion to
see that the government is not cheated.
Our governments tax of So thousand
cigars is enthusiastically small, and is
borne by the people and not by the man
ufaCturer
The manufacturer first takes the wrap
pers and resweats them. This process
sets the colors uniformly and makes the
tobacco of a rich dark hue. Then he
takes the wrappers, binders and filters
and cases them-that is, moistens them
by administering fine sprays of water.
If filters are alone to be cased, some
| f1avoring extract known as the genuine
| Vuelta Abajo Havana flavor is mixed with
| the water, and the filters are then put
into hot room and afterward spread on
a floor so that they are made perfectly
dry. The wrappers and filters are given
to shippers, who carefully tear out the
stems; the filters are also stripped,
although not so much care is taken with
them.
Cigarmaking is divided into three or
more classes The bunch-breaker or the
person who makes the punches or the
filler of cigar and puts on the binder;
the roller, who puts on the wrapper and
gives the cigar it's finishing touch, and
the packer, who asserts the cigars accord
ing to their color, and packs them
in boxes. Spanish terms are used to de-
note the colors of cigars, and it is
remarkable fact that cigars become
more and more Spanish as they come
nearer and nearer to the con-
sumers hands. The terms that are
used in connection with the cigarmaking
handicraft itself are nearly all Teutonic.
Claro signifies the lightest color; colo
RADIO claro, the next darker; colorado,
medium; colorado maduro, medium
dark; maduro, dark; obscure, black.
The bunch breaker has wooden mold,
or form, into which he Grams tobacco
until it is quite full, laying the tobacco
endwise, SO that the cigar will have
perfect draught and draw we'll when
smoked. The mold, which is provided
with cups of the exact size and dimen-
sions of the cigar required, has a lid
which is made to fit in the bottom. The
bunch breaker has the binder first placed
in the mold, which, when the top is
pressed upon the mold, forms bunch.
After standing in the press for four or
five hours, the bunch is turned over to
the roller. A mold has places in it for
twenty punches. These are deity COW
cred with tobacco of the wrapper class
by the roller, the shape of the cigar hav-
ing been acquired by the mold.
The part for lighting is called the tuck
or end, for there it is that operations are
commenced for putting on the wrapper;
the tobacco is tucked in as the cigar is
rolled around. The cigars point is called |
the head, for there is where the cigar is
finished.
1t is the universal custom among cigar
makers, Cuban cigarmakers included, to
bite off superfuous tobacco with their
teeth, and to finish cigars head after it
has been pasted with a preparation of
gum tragacanth, by rolling it between
their lips. That no disease is thereby
propagated is due, no doubt, to the dis
covery recently made by microscopists
They say that tobacco is the purest of
vegetable substances when placed under a
There is an entire absence
of micro organism of every description.
While almost all things in nature are
alive with animated substances-bacte
ria, animalcule, microbes or fungi of
some kind - tobacco is entirely free
of everything of the sort. 1t pre-
sents nothing to the microscope but it's
tibres and texture-its organic struc-
ture.
This is the reason why vast quantities
of cigars have been and are made in
amid the most squalid
and dirtiest surroundings imaginable,
with no bad results from smoking them.
have described the method of making
the 'twofors" and nickel cigars, which
are the majority of all cigars smoked.
Another method is employed in making
cigars which approaches the workman
ship of Cuba, after which all cigarmak-
ers Of every country pattern. In hand
made cigars the cigarmaker takes some
tobacco in the middle of his hand, puts
a binder around it and places wrapper
about it, fashioning it to any size or
length desired Cuban workmen are the
most skillful and command the highest
wages. From the proneness of the aver